Portlanders who frequent the South Park Blocks have likely noticed a piano outside the Portland Art Museum, beckoning passers-by with the words "Please Play Me!"

Maybe when you passed by, someone was at the keys, fingering out an old familiar tune.

If the piano was empty, maybe you sat down to tap a few notes.

The old brown upright, one of five pianos that have cropped up in public places throughout the city this summer, is the result of a partnership between a Portland musician and a foundation dedicated to bringing music to disadvantaged kids.

It all started last summer, when 29-year-old Megan McGeorge saw a cellist busking outside Al's Den on West Burnside Street and 13th Avenue.

McGeorge, a multitalented musician whose specialty is the keys, imagined playing piano on the same corner. She sought the Portland Piano Company's help to put wheels on a piano, then recruited fellow musicians from Portland State University's School of Music to play weekly concerts at the corner all summer.

Piano! Push Play! has staged several pianos in outdoor spots throughout the city this summer, including this one outside the Portland Art Museum.Motoya Nakamura/ The Oregonian

The concerts were a hit, but McGeorge wanted to do more. As a performer, she had noticed there weren't many publicly available pianos in Portland. Many local music venues don't even have a house piano.

"I've met people who are really good, but don't have their own piano at home," McGeorge says. "It's a gift, to be able to play."

McGeorge contacted The Snowman Foundation, a Portland nonprofit that donates used pianos to area children. Together, McGeorge and Snowman Foundation Manager Amy Johnson hatched a plan to scatter pianos in outdoor spots downtown, leaving them open for anyone to play.

Similar street piano programs in Miami and New York City inspired McGeorge's project.

With the help of a $1,000 grant from Awesome Portland, McGeorge and Johnson placed pianos at five spots throughout the city.

For two weeks this summer, the pianos held court at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Bill Naito Legacy Fountain near the Portland Saturday Market, the Rose Festival Foundation patio, and the corner of West Burnside Street and 13th Avenue. They were an instant hit, inspiring many a pedestrian to stop and play or listen.

"There was a feeling in the air on those street corners," McGeorge says. "People were talking to each other who had never talked to each other."

On a recent weekday afternoon, a young woman stopped her errands to play a few jazz notes at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

At the West Burnside piano, street teens played Rihanna songs while cooks from nearby restaurants watched on their lunch break.

Days later, a young man dressed in head-to-toe black, with ear gauges and facial piercing, tapped a classical piece outside the art museum while a small audience listened from the plaza steps.

Perhaps, McGeorge says, Piano! Push Play! will find indoor spaces to place pianos during the holidays, beckoning passers-by to play "Jingle Bells" and "Ma'oz Tzur."

They will donate pianos from summer experiment to disadvantaged children, in keeping with the Snowman Foundation's mission. One will go to Outside In, another to New Avenues For Youth, and a final one to the King PK-8 School in Northeast Portland.

"Our goal for next summer is to increase to 10 pianos, and have some on the other side of the river," McGeorge says. "Then we want to build a permanent public piano network, so somebody could use a map or an app to find the closest open piano to play."

Next month, the organization's first permanent public piano will be installed at ADX, at 417 S.E. 11th Ave.